Good CVs are everywhere. Good hires aren't.
We built a process around the things a CV can't tell you — how someone communicates under pressure, adapts to a new team, and handles the gap between what was planned and what actually happens.
The real gap
Here's what we kept hearing from clients before they found us: “We're drowning in CVs but can't find the right person.” The recruiter sends fifteen profiles. Maybe two get interviews. One gets an offer. They leave after four months.
The problem isn't finding people with the right keywords on their LinkedIn. The problem is that a senior cloud architect who thrived at a 200-person SaaS company may completely struggle inside a 5,000-person bank with legacy governance and committee-driven decisions. Same skills. Totally different context.
That gap — between technical capability and real-world fit — is what we spend most of our time on.
Two things we check. Both non-negotiable.
Can they actually do the work?
We don't use generic coding tests. If we're assessing an enterprise architect, we want to hear them walk through a system they designed — the trade-offs they made, the constraints they worked around, the parts they'd do differently today. If it's a cybersecurity specialist, we want to understand how they've handled an actual incident, not how they'd answer a textbook question about incident response.
Each of our six niches — enterprise architecture, AI/ML, cloud and DevOps, cybersecurity, CPQ, and telco — has its own assessment structure. Because evaluating a Salesforce CPQ consultant the same way you'd evaluate a machine learning engineer makes no sense, and we got tired of watching other agencies do exactly that.
We also talk to people who've worked with the candidate before. Not as a checkbox — as a real conversation about what it's like to have this person on your team.
Will they actually fit?
This is the part most agencies skip, and it's the part that matters most for placements longer than three months.
We developed a framework around four things we've seen predict whether someone integrates well into a new team:
Drive— Do they take ownership, or do they wait to be told? This shows up fast in contract roles where nobody's going to manage your day for you.
Clarity— Can they explain a technical decision to a product manager who doesn't share their vocabulary? In our experience, this single skill predicts success in enterprise environments more than almost anything else.
Empathy — How do they handle disagreement? Do they listen before they push back? Teams with new contractors are fragile — someone who steamrolls on day one creates damage that lasts months.
Adaptability— Every client says their environment is “fast-paced.” What we actually want to know is: when the scope changed three weeks in, what did this person do?
We assess this through a structured interview — about 45 minutes. It's not a personality quiz. There's no score or colour-coded output. It gives us enough to write an honest paragraph about who this person is beyond their technical skills, and that paragraph goes to the client alongside the technical summary.
What the process looks like
Most placements take 5 to 10 business days. Some niches are faster, some slower. We don't rush it.
The brief
Not a form. A conversation. We want to understand the team, the project, what went wrong last time, and what "great" looks like for this specific seat. This usually takes 30–45 minutes and shapes everything else.
Search
We start with our pre-vetted network — people who've already passed our technical assessment. For specialist or senior roles, we headhunt. Our focus is the European market, and most of our network is across the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and the Nordics.
Assessment and shortlist
You get 2 or 3 candidates. Not 15. Each one comes with a technical summary, a personality-fit write-up, and an honest note on where we see the strongest match — and where the risks are.
Placement
We handle the paperwork — contracts, compliance, Dutch employment law, payroll if needed. After they start, we check in at two weeks, six weeks, and three months. Not because we have to. Because that's when problems surface if they're going to.
Things we won't do
We won't send you a pile of CVs and hope for the best. Every candidate we present has been through both layers of our assessment. If we don't have anyone who meets the bar, we'll tell you that instead of padding the shortlist.
We don't use AI to screen or rank candidates. All of our assessments are done by people. That's a deliberate choice — not because we're against technology, but because the things that determine whether a placement works (team dynamics, communication style, cultural fit) aren't things an algorithm can reliably measure. We've documented this in our EU AI Act compliance statement, if that matters to your procurement team.
We won't disappear on you. Candidates hear back. Clients get updates. If there's a delay, you'll know why. Recruitment has a reputation problem, and most of it comes from agencies going quiet when they don't have good news. We'd rather have an uncomfortable conversation early than let silence do the damage.
Want to see how we'd approach your role?
Walk us through what you're looking for. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help — and if we can, how we'd go about it.